Coventry LEP ‘could become bureaucratic’ warns thinktank

COVENTRY and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership has come in for criticism from a thinktank on the first anniversary of it being approved by the government.

The public/private sector business development body was one of 24 approved in the first tranche by Business Secretary Vince Cable MP at the end of October last year.

But thinktank Centre for Cities suggests it has grown too big and could become bureaucratic as it releases a new report on LEPs entitled ‘Cause célèbre or cause for concern?’

The Centre for Cities said: “Eight (LEPs) have yet to have their boards recognised by government, only two have produced a long-term strategic plan and five do not have a dedicated website.

“In some cases, LEPs have appointed huge boards and advisory teams.

“The South East LEP has 43 board members and the Coventry and Warwickshire LEP has 14 associated focus groups, with at least 160 people involved.

“This, the Centre argues, could add a level of bureaucracy and process that might slow decision-making.”

The thinktank went on to say many of the LEPs have made “limited progress” while others face mismatches between spatial geography and the political and economic reality and pressures of partnership working across new boundaries.

LEPs were introduced by the Coalition Government followings its election in May last year as a smaller alternative to regional development agencies such as Advantage West Midlands which is closing in March.

Other LEPs in the region are Marches, Black Country, Greater Birmingham and Solihull, Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire and Worcestershire, part of 38 across England.

Pic from left: Sir Peter Rigby, Craig Humphrey, Alan Farnell, Nigel Thrift, John Mutton, Daniel Gidney, Denys Shortt, Martyn Hollingsworth, John Latham and Linda Bigham. The board of the Coventry and Warwickshire LEP